The 2016 Pilgrimage Festival is just weeks away. As we ready ourselves for this year’s event, taking place Sept 24-25 at Harlinsdale Farm in Franklin, we wanted to look back at the inaugural event that took place Sept 2015.
For a first year festival, last year’s music line-up was stellar. In addition to well known musicians like Wilco, Sheryl Crow, Cage the Elephant and others, there were also artists who were not as well known. Here are 5 of our favorite moments from last year’s Pilgrimage Fest:
Emi Sunshine
Let’s start with the Little Pilgrim stage. If you overlooked the talent playing on that stage, you were mistaken. Emi Sunshine, a local middle Tennessee talent who has played at the Opry had us captured from the first note. At age 12, her voice is anything but child-like. Watch our video from last year’s Pilgrimage Festival.
Chris Stapleton
Although many know who Chris Stapleton is now, last summer he was still a bit unknown. Stapleton introduced the Franklin audience to his ‘Tennessee Whiskey” and he had us when he said “You’re as sweet as strawberry wine.” From there Stapleton went on to perform with newly announced producer of Pilgrimage Festival 2016 –Justin Timberlake during the CMA Awards where Stapleton took home the coveted award of New Artist of the Year.
Watch the video of Timberlake and Stapleton performing “Drink You Away.”
Nikki Lane
We met Nikki Lane at the Americana Awards just before Pilgrimage Festival 2015. With her retro styling and no nonsense approach, Lane is a bit of an artist outlaw. Releasing her sophomore album in 2014, there’s a new album underway to be released this fall. Lane’s sultry voice grabs your attention and while we will miss her this year, lucky for us she lives in Nashville and you can see her perform in town.
Sheryl Crow
We couldn’t complete this list without mentioning our own Franklin resident – Sheryl Crow. Multi talented in music and she certainly has an eye for decorating as we saw with her collaboration with City Farmhouse, Crow played some of our favorites like ” A Change Will Do You Good” to “All I Want to Do.” Crow even brought Holly Williams, owner of White’s Mercantile to the stage with her.
Harlinsdale Farm
We know Harlinsdale Farm is not an artist but in its on way, it is. The daily music ended at sunset and provided for some incredible imagery Not only was it the first time for Franklin to host an event like this, it was held at the picturesque Harlinsdale Farm. It was the perfect backdrop for such an event with ample space for parking and plenty of room to walk easily between stages, food trucks and vendors. We are excited to see the farm come to life in this way again this year with an even bigger crowd and the opportunity for Franklin to show that they can host an event worth making the trip.
It’s not too late to buy your tickets to this year’s event. There are one day and two day passes available online. The line-up for Pilgrimage 2016 includes Osborne Brothers, Kacey Musgraves, Beck, Jason Isbell and Grace Potter, just to name a few. See the complete line-up here.
